Omission of lesson on Bhagat Singh insult to martyr: Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at the BJP government in Karnataka over reports about removal of a lesson on Bhagat Singh from a school textbook, Delhi chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said it’s an insult to the sacrifice made by the iconic freedom fighter, and demanded a roll back of the decision.

Taking to Twitter, the AAP national convener said the country will not tolerate such insult of its martyrs, and asked the BJP why “its people” hate Bhagat Singh so much.

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann also slammed the BJP over the issue and said the saffron party’s hatred for Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh has come out in the open before everyone.

The reaction of the two CMs came a day after some organisations, including All-India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) and All-India Save Education Committee (AISEC), claimed that the Karnataka government has omitted a lesson on Bhagat Singh and included a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in a revised Kannada textbook for students of class 10.

“Why do BJP people hate Amar Shaheed Sardar Bhagat Singh ji so much? Removal of Sardar Bhagat Singh ji’s name from school books is an insult to the sacrifice of the amar shaheed,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi. “The country will not tolerate such humiliation of its martyrs at all. The BJP government will have to take back this decision,” he added.

Tweeting in Hindi and Punjabi, Mann said: “BJP’s hatred for Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh ji has come out in front of everyone. Even today, a wave of patriotism runs among the youth after reading (about) Sardar Bhagat Singh, who lit the flame of revolution by making the supreme sacrifice for the country at a young age. BJP’s soul trembles out of fear with this spirit of patriotism.”